"The central doctrine of Christianity, then, is not that God is a bastard. It is, in the words of the late Dominican theologian Herbert McCabe, that if you don’t love you’re dead, and if you do, they’ll kill you."--Terry Eagleton

"It is impossible for me to say in my book one word about all that music has meant in my life. How then can I hope to be understood?--Ludwig Wittgenstein

“The opposite of poverty is not wealth; the opposite of poverty is justice."--Bryan Stevenson

Monday, May 07, 2018

We all go down into the dark

John McCain, as all the world knows, is dying of brain cancer. No matter what I think of John McCain's politics or his public actions, he is a human being; he has a family; he has friends; he deserves a measure of regard that all the dying deserve, because death is the great equalizer we all stand before together; sooner or later.

John McCain has spent the last 60 years advocating, cheering for and glorifying the most monstrous and murderous wars on the planet, while demanding many others that never happened. He has enormous amounts of blood on his hands. That he's dying of brain cancer doesn't change this https://t.co/6SAEJ1My8h

These repressive decrees prohibiting criticisms of John McCain as he dies are like those who insist gun control not be spoken of after mass shootings. Discussions of his life are inherently political. If you're going heap praise on & sanctify him, you can't also silence critics.

Insisting on the right to convert every US political leader into a heroic & noble saint upon death, while condemning critics as gauche & classless, is propaganda. It's easy to dismiss all the deaths McCain has caused because they're distant and invisible, but they still matter.

To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven and every disagreement is propaganda, if you disagree with Glenn Greenwald.

Always knew I'd disagree with Glenn Greenwald on what day of the week it was; never saw myself agreeing with Bill Kristol or Jonah Greenberg, though:

Anti-McCain twitter seems to have reached new heights (or depths) of repulsiveness. In the hope that a few of the haters see this, let me say: I’m proud to have voted for John McCain for president three times (2000 & 2008 primaries & 2008 general), and for Donald Trump...never.

Well, that criticism of a dying man (who was not a despot or a tyrant or responsible for the deaths of millions) is repulsive, we agree on; the rest, not so much (except voting for Trump).

I have political disagreements — from quibbles to more significant — with John McCain. But all of these self-described conservatives using the man’s funeral wishes to piss on his whole life just to prove their love of Trump are debasing themselves. It’s grotesque.

Or the love of their ideology, their determination to impose their view on the world, and criticize the world for not conforming to it immediately, if not sooner.

Remember your Creator before the silver cord is snapped and the golden bowl is broken, before the pitcher is shattered at the spring and the wheel broken at the well, before the dust returns to the earth as it began and the spirit returns to God who gave it.--Ecclesiastes 12:6-7 (REB)

1 Comments:

I'm beginning to think that political criticism should serve a purpose, otherwise it's just adding to the general din of hate. I don't see any purpose served by this at this point. If Greenwald wants to make those points, an historical profile making the case is the place to make it, not in the degenerate form that Twitter is.